BNU March 2019

4 Calls for Funding and Awards, BNU March 2019, Brussels News Updates

European Chemistry Gold Medal – nominations open!

Every two years, the exceptional achievements of one scientist working in the field of chemistry in Europe are rewarded. The winner is awarded a gold medal and the opportunity to give the opening lecture at the next EuChemS Chemistry Congress (ECC). The call for nominations was opened on 1 March and will be open until 30 September 2019. Submissions can be made here.

Deadline: 30 September 2019
Website: https://www.euchems.eu/awards/european-chemistry-gold-medal/

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3 Consultations and Roadmaps, BNU March 2019, Brussels News Updates

Public consultation: EFSA draft assessment of five phthalates used in plastic food contact materials

EFSA’s Food Ingredients and Packaging (FIP) has launched an open consultation on the draft scientific opinion on the risk assessment of di-butylphthalate (DBP), butyl-benzyl-phthalate (BBP), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), di-isononylphthalate (DINP) and di-isodecylphthalate (DIDP) for use in plastic food contact materials.

Drop us a line if you would like to contribute to an EuChemS response! Deadline to send us feedback: 1 April 2019

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1 European Highlights, BNU March 2019, Brussels News Updates

Antimicrobial resistance: no signs of slowing down

A recent report released by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reveals that antimicrobials used to treat a variety of diseases continue to witness a drop in their effectiveness. Vytenis Andriukaitis, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety warned that the report “should ring – again – alarm bells”, and that concerted action is urgently needed to prevent the alarm bells from becoming “a deafening siren”. Some of the major diseases such as Campylobacter bacteria and Salmonella are becoming increasingly resistant to fluoroquinolones.

The report does show however, that countries limiting antimicrobial use, have shown a decrease in antimicrobial resistance. Read EFSA’s debrief here.

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1 European Highlights, BNU March 2019, Brussels News Updates

‘’Is anyone reading our work?’’

The European Commission is currently preparing a project know as the “Knowledge4Policy” (K4P) platform, a set-up that aims to enable more fluid exchanges between scientists, policymakers and journalists. Beginning of March, the first focus group was held in which several scientists were asked to discuss their worries and their perception of how decision-makers access and use their research findings. But bridging the cultural divide between how scientists think and work and of how policymakers do so is not easy task. The session enabled scientists to share the sort of features in such a platform they would like and to better understand what decision-makers are looking for. Interestingly, one of the recurring statements expressed was the desire to have as much face to face contact as possible with policymakers, a consequence of the fact it remains very hard to know whether one’s research is being read. You can access the full article here.

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1 European Highlights, BNU March 2019, Brussels News Updates

Executive Board meeting in Lisbon

On 18 -19 February, the EuChemS Executive Board met in Lisbon, Portugal for the first Executive Board meeting of the year. Discussions focused on a wide range of issues, including upcoming activities and initiatives for the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT2019), as well as next year’s 50-year anniversary of EuChemS (initially known as FECS). Following discussions, the Executive Board was given the opportunity of visiting the congress centre which will host the 8th EuChemS Chemistry Congress in 2020!

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1 European Highlights, BNU March 2019, Brussels News Updates

Horizon Europe: deal on time?

Members of the European Parliament have urged that a preliminary deal on Horizon Europe be made ahead of the May European elections, even if some matters, including the budget, would have to be settled after the new Parliament reports ScienceBusiness,.

Negotiations are currently at an impasse over a range of issues, including who would define the ‘Missions’ and the role of the funding programme in bridging the innovation gap between eastern and western Europe.

The Parliament presented several compromises on key issues in order to secure an agreement with the Member States, who will be meeting this week for more negotiation sessions.

In August 2018, EuChemS published a position paper together with amendments on the European Parliament’s proposal for Horizon Europe. In the document, we stressed the need to keep striving for excellence, the need to allow countries that have previously participated in EU research programmes to continue being able to do so in the future, as well as the need for more ambitious budgets for the programme as a whole, as well as for the European Research Council (ERC) and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA).

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1 European Highlights, BNU March 2019, Brussels News Updates

Women in science

The new edition of the She Figures report prepared by the European Commission puts into focus a clear message: women continue to be under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The gender gap has over the past years not changed much. Figures show that the proportion of women researchers in the EU was of 33,4% in 2015, compared to 33% in 2012.

Lutgarde Buydens, Rector at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and one of the speakers at our EuChemS workshop on 7 March focused on the gender gap and the ‘leaky pipe’ – the situation whereby the number of women drops the higher up we climb the academic ladder. Whereas the proportion of women graduate students reaches 50%, this drops to 40% in PhD candidates, dropping down to 35% for associate professors, and 20% for full professors. Professor Buydens moreover emphasised the continued and often unrecognised bias (and implicit bias) expressed in our everyday actions and practices, with direct repercussions in how women are hired, promoted, perceived.

Some ways to counter this bias is to raise awareness of it, install gender and diversity committees in universities and research centres, introduce awareness training sessions for those who hire and select candidates, amongst a range of other issues.

Awareness of the gender gap is most likely at an all-time high, yet the slowness of change is testament to a deeply rooted issue that won’t be solved on its own. Direct and concrete steps are needed to ensure equal opportunities for all. Indeed, the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Breaking the Barriers report starkly states: “continuing at the current rate of change, we will never reach gender parity”.

And on a side note, a separate study by the European Commission has also shown that increasing women’s participation in politics has clear positive impacts on the quality of governance, transparency and accountability!

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1 European Highlights, BNU March 2019, Brussels News Updates

Bridging education, employability and EU research funding

How are education, employability and research funding linked, and how can we ensure they are connected in a way that encourages equal opportunities for European chemical scientists? This was the topic for discussion at the EuChemS workshop ‘‘Chemical sciences for Horizon Europe, education and employability’’ in the European Parliament on 7 March, hosted by MEP Lambert van Nistelrooij. Representatives from the European Parliament, European Commission, academia and industry came together to discuss their perspectives and suggestions for the way forward.

The session’s topic based itself on the Employability Survey for European Chemists whose results were published in 2018. The survey displayed a range of issues, whether in terms of talent being inadequately supported, lack of opportunities for certain demographic groups, necessary skills not being taught to students or insufficient information being communicated to those moving from academia to industry. Speakers could therefore base themselves on some of the survey’s findings to look at which steps should be taken to improve the situation.

A number of core issues emerged from the talks, many of which were indeed repeated by the different speakers:

  • The need for improved academia-industry collaboration
  • Recognising the precursor role of high quality (higher) education
  • Recognising the importance of closer collaboration on an equal basis across Europe and beyond
  • Addressing gender bias in everyday practices
  • The urgent need for better communication between all stakeholders
  • Taking notice of the diminishing borders between different scientific disciplines

The variety of perspectives offered by the speakers ensured the session provided an encompassing overview of the issues that exist but also different ways forward. Ultimately, the EU can encourage and provide quality opportunities for scientists, but the right environment needs to be fostered. Only with the involvement of all stakeholders, that talk to each other, listen, and perhaps more pertinently, hear each other, can we ensure results that move in the right direction.

You can download our summary info sheet here.

More information about the speakers and their presentations is available online here.

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